Jealousy is a rude messenger with useful news: it points at something you want.

The feeling arrives in an unflattering form and still carries information. You do not get jealous about things you are indifferent to, so the sting is a fairly reliable indicator of what you actually want, often clearer than anything you would say out loud. The useful move is to read the message and ignore the messenger’s tone.

Next time it hits, name the specific thing rather than the person: their free time, their nerve, the fact that they finished something. Then ask what the smallest version of that would be for you this month, and go and start it.